I'm about a 2.75 or so. I have emptied out the cans and refilled them so the replacement is completely hidden, but sometimes, I just replace it with as close as I can find to what was there, depending on the amount of effort and difficulty involved. As for the cabinets, I do the least amount possible to have it looking decent. If it is too far gone, I refinish, otherwise, I clean, re-amalgamate, and so on as needed.<P>Bill<P>------------------<BR>

Regarding cabinet refinishing, I recall someone once saying "You can refinish many times over but original is only once".<P>------------------<BR>

My philosophy . . . what ever takes the most work, looks the most original, costs the least, makes you most proud of your restored widget. Everything is free game, unless it belonged to granny. If it makes you proud, to tell your 'enthusiast friends', that you sprayed it with a can of varnish from Wallymart, then I say go for it! And if they oooh! and ahhh! over your work, hey! more power to ya! If 20 years later you decide to sell the widget, and you get your money back, it was a sound investment.<P>------------------<BR>

I've followed this thread with great interest as I've been lurking around here for a couple of years, yet, just finally completed my first electronic restoration a few days ago. <P>I can see how one could become a fanatic about a restoration process. For me it is getting a piece I like working and looking like it did when it was originally produced. In the case of a GE K-63 that I just restored, it was in such horrible shape - deep scratches and holes in the cabinet, missing veneer chips, torn and lifting veneer. Then the chassis was filled with rust, the wiring was crumbling and the radio had been obviously serviced (read hacked) along the line sometime.<P>My philosophy in this case was to get the radio working and looking close to what it once was for my own enjoyment. I was able to preserve what the chassis looks like from the outside, but I completely rebuilt it from the ground up underneath. Much to my amazement, it sounds great (with the original tubes that came with it and the original speaker with minor repairs). After aligning the set, I'm able to pull all kinds of stations in - better than some of my solid state radios in the house.<P>In my view this radio was ready for the dumpster but will now live on in my house for my enjoyment for many years to come. It certainly is not a museum piece - but will still represent (as much as it can) the time it was manufactured. <P>I'm currently restoring a Crosley Model 125 where the chassis is in real good shape along with most of the electronics. I plan to simply recap the set and try to get it working. Not sure whether I will re-stuff caps or not. Again this set was serviced in the past and some of the caps are not original.<P>All that said, I'm probably between 2 and 3 depending on the set and what I plan to do with it.<P>This forum is great - can't say enough good things about it. All of my questions have been answered curtiously and in a timily manner (many times within minutes of my posting). I appreciate all of your expertise - keep up the good work.<P>Dave<P>------------------<BR>

Can't resist jumping in here. My first comment would be that the responses don't really look truly representative to me.<P>My guess is that the vast majority of people out there don't restuff either electrolytics or paper caps. As fas as I can tell, most people like to leave the top of the chassis looking original as much as possible, but the bottom of the chassis is open to substitution of modern parts to replace originals.<P>All this talk of restuffing caps perhaps has motivated me to try it one of these days.<P>My overall perception of this hobby is that the vast majority of the radios at our disposal really don't have much value (I'm guessing that 80% of all radios out there sell for less than $50). Therefore, it doesn't make sense doing much of anything for somebody else's benefit (either now or for somebody in the future). Fix them the way you like them. Don't imagine that they are good investments for resale. Don't aim for someone else's "standard". Most of these radios are not "rare" and therefore you may exploit them as you see fit.<P>For radios that are currently worth a few hundred dollars on up, perhaps restuffing, etc is worthwhile.<P>For cabinet restorations, I prefer to make them look as much like the day they were sold as possible. This usually means stripping the original finish. However, getting the finish correct seems to be a fairly rare skill. I'm actually not very impressed with what I see at antique radio flea markets. Maybe 10% of the refinished radios have an original-looking finish; many look truly terrible. Again, just pointing out that the responses here seem to suggest a higher standard than what a lot of people are actually doing.<P>While I'm working on assignment over here in Europe, it's interesting to note that a similar discussion comes up in restoration of old buildings. In Germany, restorations of old buildings is done in a manner to make them look like they were just built (probably sacrificing a lot of original material). Other countries sometimes seem prefer more original material, with a more beat-up appearance. Still other countries (usually poor ones) seem to practice neglect, which leaves a lot of original material, but doesn't look inviting...<P>Tom<P>------------------<BR>